of the
occasion. He was a fine, manly fellow now, and Mrs. Dean loved him like
a son. Indeed, it seemed as if he might be her son, the young people
were so much to each other. Josie would graduate the next year at the
high school.

Ben and Delia had gone along through the winter with very little
change, except to learn how much they loved each other. The young men
did not have quite such rollicking good times, though Nora was
developing into a very attractive young girl and enchanted them with her
singing. Delia was very busy trying her best to come up to some high
standards of literary work. Everybody was not a genius in those days.
Colleges had not begun to turn them out by the score, and the elder
people were very often helpful to the younger ones.

There was, it is true, a certain kind of Bohemianism among the men that
proved dangerous to more than one fine, promising mind. Ben liked the
bright wit and keen encounters, and the talk that ran through centuries
of intellectual activity as if it was only yesterday. He was taking a
curious interest in politics as well, for some great questions were
coming to the fore.

Mrs. Underhill had preserved a cautious silence respecting Delia,
indeed, ignored the whole matter. Dolly was cordial when they met. Jim
had been so taken up with his engrossing experience that he rarely went
to Beach Street; and the two sets of society were widely apart. Delia
had supposed everything would come around straight; it generally did in
her happy-go-lucky fashion.

But on Commencement day, when she was all smiles and gladness, Mrs.
Underhill's coolness and Mrs. Hoffman's stately distance quite amazed
her.

"Ben," she said, "something has happened with your people. Your mother
hardly spoke to me, and Margaret was icy. And now that I come to think
of it, Hanny hasn't been near us since Nora's birthday--February that
was. Are they offended because--don't they like our engagement? And I
love them all so, from least to greatest; only Margaret is rather high
up."

"Hanny's had such lots of lessons, and her music, and she's
corresponding with Daisy Jasper in French. Grandmother takes her time,
too. You don't have so much leisure out of childhood."

"What jolly times we had back there in First Street! Oh, Ben, I did like
you all so much! And I can't bear to have the good feeling die out."

There were tears in Delia's brown eyes. Ben was moved immeasurably.

"May be I ought to have said som